The Revolutions of 1917
The Constitutional Experiment
The Fall of the Monarchy
Dual Government
The October Revolution
1
Questions
• Could Russia have avoided another
revolution?
• Could Russia have remained a
constitutional monarchy?
• Was it World War I that undermined the
monarchy or the revolutionaries?
2
Demi-SemiConstitutional Monarchy
•
•
•
•
Duma
Interpellation of Ministers
Freedom of speech
Freedom of organizing
But
• Tsar’s complete distrust of the Duma
• & Duma’s complete distrust of the Tsar
3
Contradictions of 1905-1917
• Freely elected parliament
– But Nicholas II couldn’t stand it
– And he could dissolve it at will
• Civil rights extended to the population
– But secret police still spy on everyone
• Bureaucracy still running the government
in an autocratic manner
4
Peter Stolypin (1862-1911)
Prime Minister, 1906-1911
This image is in the public domain. Source: Wikimedia Commons .
5
Stolypin’s Reforms
• Wager on the strong
– peasants could consolidate their strips
– they could leave the commune
• Transfer of crown and state lands to the
Peasant Bank for sale to the peasants
• Offer of Siberian lands to the peasants
• Stolypin’s neckties
6
Could Russia have avoided
revolution?
Pluses
Third Duma – stable
Economic growth
Growth of professional
classes
Minuses
Both left and right
oppose the Duma
Peasant dissatisfaction
Loss of faith in the tsar
WWI: military, political
and social disaster
7
World War I: Why did Russia join?
•
•
•
•
Pan-Slavism and patriotism
Imperial Geopolitics
Optimism about the offensive
Technology’s unexpected impact
– The machine gun
– The railroad
8
Tsar Nicholas II in 1915
Painting by Boris
Kustodiev
This image is in the public domain. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
9
Grigori Rasputin
This image is in the public domain. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
10
Tsar & Tsarina as
Puppets of Rasputin
This image is in the public domain. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
11
Russian Wounded Returning from WWI
This image is in the public domain. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
12
Women’s Bread Riots, Feb. 1917
This image is in the public domain.
13
The Putilov Factory
This image is in the public domain. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
14
The tsar has abdicated! The people and the army demand PEACE!
This event took place in our blessed Russia! Rejoice, brothers.
The Petrograd Telegraph Agency reports: "A revolution has broken out
in Petrograd. The executive committee, consisting of 12 deputies of the
State Duma, has taken power into its hands. The revolutionaries
arrested the ministers. The garrison of the capital, consisting of 30,000
soldiers, has joined with the revolutionaries. The tsar has abdicated!"
15
Dual government
• Provisional
Government
• Soviet of Workers’,
Peasants’, and
Soldiers’ Deputies
16
Order No. 1
issued by the Petrograd Soviet of Soldiers’ and Workers’ Deputies
• Election of regimental committees
• Election of representatives to the Soviet
• Subordination of all military units to the
Soviet
• All arms under the control of the
committees
• Officers forbidden to address soldiers with
“ty” (familiar form of address)
17
Tauride Palace
This image is in the public domain. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
18
The Petrograd Soviet
This image is in the public domain. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
19
The Provisional Government
This image is in the public domain. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
20
Prince Georgy Lvov
This image is in the public domain. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
21
Report from the Front:
General Alekseev to War Minister Guchkov. April 16, 1917
[source: Seventeen Moments]
• The situation in the army grows worse every day: information
coming in from all sides indicates that the army is systematically
falling apart.
• (1) Desertions continue unabated: in the armies of the Northern and
Western fronts between April 1 and 7, 7,688 soldiers are reported as
deserters ... a number manifestly and considerably underestimated..
• (2) Discipline declines with each passing day; those guilty of
violating military duty are completely indifferent to possible criminal
punishments, convinced of the extreme unlikelihood of enforcement.
• (3) The authority of officers and commanders has collapsed and
cannot be restored by present methods. Owing to undeserved
humiliations and assaults, the de facto removal of their authority
over subordinates, and the surrender of such control to soldiers'
committees ... the morale of the officer corps has sunk to a new low.
• (4) A pacifist mood has developed in the ranks. Among the soldier
mass, not only is the idea of offensive operations rejected, but even
preparations for such, on which basis major violations of discipline
have occurred ...
• (5) Defeatist literature and propaganda has built itself a firm nest in
the army. This propaganda comes from two sides -from the enemy
and from the rear ... and obviously stems from the same source.
22
Dilemmas
• War
– Annexations
– Defense
– Defeat
• Land
– With or without compensation
• Bread
– How to feed the cities
23
Lenin at the Finland Station (April)
Image by WittyName32 on flickr. License CC BY-NC-SA.
24
April Theses
•
•
•
•
No to defensism
All power to the Soviets
No support for the Provisional Government
Abolition of the police, the army, the
bureaucracy
• All officers to be elected
• Confiscation of all private lands
• Nationalization of all lands
25
Principal Bolshevik slogan:
Bread, Peace, Land
26
Who is Against the Soviets?
(the officer, the banker, the priest and the merchant)
This image is in the public domain.
27
July Street Demonstrations
This image is in the public domain. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
28
General Kornilov (August 1917)
This image is in the public domain. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
29
Kerensky (in white)
arriving in Moscow (Aug. 1917)
This image is in the public domain. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
30
Lenin’s dilemma – September 1917
What the Provisional Government might do:
• Separate peace with Germany?
• Early elections to the Constituent Assembly?
• Provocation of another uprising like the July
Days
– discrediting/arrest of the Bolsheviks
31
Provisional Government Mistake,
September 1917
Mobilization of the Petrograd garrison for the
front
32
October Seizure of Power
1) seize the main bridges and telegraph
(night of October 24)
2) seize the main railways (day of October
25)
3) seize the headquarters of the Provisional
Government (Winter Palace) (evening of
October 25)
33
Winter Palace Defended by the Junkers
October 1917
This image is in the public domain. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
34
“To the Citizens of Russia”
(October 25, 1917)
• The Provisional Government has been
deposed.
• Power has passed to the Soviet of
Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies
• Long live the revolution of workers,
soldiers and peasants!
35
First Decrees
•
•
•
•
Peace
Land
The press
The rights of the peoples of Russia
36
Leading Bolsheviks, 1919
This image is in the public domain.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
This image is in the public domain.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Jacob Sverdlov
Vladimir Lenin
This image is in the public domain.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Joseph Stalin
37
Leading Bolsheviks, 1919
This image is in the public domain.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Andrei
Sergeyevich
Bubnov
This image is in the public domain.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
This image is in the public domain.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Felix Edmundovich
Dzerzhinsky
Stepan
Shahumyan
38
Leading Bolsheviks, 1919
This image is in the public domain.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Nikolay
Moisei
Nikolayevich
Solomonovich
Krestinsky
Matvei
Konstantinovich
Uritsky
Muranov
This image is in the public domain.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
This image is in the public domain.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
39
Leading Bolsheviks, 1919
This image is in the public domain.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
This image is in the public domain.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Vladimir
Pavlovich
Milyutin
This image is in the public domain.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Alexandra Mikhailovna
Kollontai
Fyodor
Andreyevich
Sergeyev
40
Leading Bolsheviks, 1919
This image is in the public domain.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Grygory
Sokolnikov
This image is in the public domain.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
This image is in the public domain.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Nikolai Bukharin
Alexei Rykov
41
Leading Bolsheviks, 1919
This image is in the public domain.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
This image is in the public domain.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Viktor Nogin
Lev Kamenev
Image courtesy of the Embassyof the
Russian Federation in Austria. License CC BY.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Yan Antonovich
Berzin
42
Leading Bolsheviks, 1919
This image is in the public domain.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
This image is in the public domain.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Grigory
Zinoviev
This image is in the public domain.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Leon Trotsky
Ivar Tenisovich
Smilga
43
MIT OpenCourseWare
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21H.245J / 17.57J / 21G.086J Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society, 1917 to the Present
Spring 2016
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